Damn Vista
Windows Update on my installation of Vista Ultimate hasn't been working since May this year. Most times Windows Update would just tell me it can't update which was rather uninformative. Every now and then though it would also provide me with an error code: 80070246.
On and off for months I searched through several forums that provided lots of technical details about the individual installations with the same issue but not much useful answers. Only now did I stumble upon this short and sweet question and answer on Microsoft's own forum site. The short and simple answer lead me to Microsoft's very own System Update Readiness Tool.
To quote Microsoft: "Microsoft released the System Update Readiness Tool to resolve certain conditions that could cause installing updates and other software not to work." which is contrary to my initial thought that it was a tool to prepare your system for an update to another release of Windows. They then go on to say "You do not have to manually run this tool. This tool is offered automatically through Windows Update to computers that have a condition that the tool could resolve." which of course doesn't help me when Windows Update itself doesn't work! In a pleasantly surprising demonstration of foresight, Microsoft do actually provide a link for you to manually download the tool.
So off I went to download the slightly confusingly labelled System Update Readiness Tool. It took what seemed like an eternity to install and then work its magic for some reason, however in another surprise the progress bar was remarkably truthful about the progress! In the end it told me that it fixed and installed whatever it required and I then tried running Windows Update again.
At first I thought the tool hadn't fixed anything as Windows Update did it's usual scrolling back and forth as before. I decided to let it sit for a while and eventually it did inform me that updates were available so I proceeded to let it download and install them. With relief I was given the familiar message that Windows needs to reboot to finish installation. So the lesson to be learnt is that sometimes Microsoft does provide useful product support on its own web site.
On and off for months I searched through several forums that provided lots of technical details about the individual installations with the same issue but not much useful answers. Only now did I stumble upon this short and sweet question and answer on Microsoft's own forum site. The short and simple answer lead me to Microsoft's very own System Update Readiness Tool.
To quote Microsoft: "Microsoft released the System Update Readiness Tool to resolve certain conditions that could cause installing updates and other software not to work." which is contrary to my initial thought that it was a tool to prepare your system for an update to another release of Windows. They then go on to say "You do not have to manually run this tool. This tool is offered automatically through Windows Update to computers that have a condition that the tool could resolve." which of course doesn't help me when Windows Update itself doesn't work! In a pleasantly surprising demonstration of foresight, Microsoft do actually provide a link for you to manually download the tool.
So off I went to download the slightly confusingly labelled System Update Readiness Tool. It took what seemed like an eternity to install and then work its magic for some reason, however in another surprise the progress bar was remarkably truthful about the progress! In the end it told me that it fixed and installed whatever it required and I then tried running Windows Update again.
At first I thought the tool hadn't fixed anything as Windows Update did it's usual scrolling back and forth as before. I decided to let it sit for a while and eventually it did inform me that updates were available so I proceeded to let it download and install them. With relief I was given the familiar message that Windows needs to reboot to finish installation. So the lesson to be learnt is that sometimes Microsoft does provide useful product support on its own web site.
Labels: computers, operating system, troubleshooting
posted by Forrest Rivers at 19:47
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